Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Transit costs and cost efficiency: bootstrapping non-parametric frontiers

Contents:

Author Info

  • De Borger B.
  • Kerstens K.
  • Staat M.

Abstract

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarised as follows: (i) the bias implied by uncorrected cost efficiency measures is numerically important (close to 25%), (ii) the bootstrapped-based test rejects the constant returns to scale hypothesis (iii) explaining patterns of efficiency scores using a two-stage bootstrapping approach detects only one significant covariate, in contrast to earlier results highlighting, e.g., the positive impact of high-powered contract types. Finally, comparing the average inefficiency obtained for the Norwegian data set with an analogous estimate for a smaller French sample illustrates how the estimated differences in average efficiency almost disappear once sample size differences are accounted for.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.ua.ac.be/download.aspx?c=*TEWHI&n=60625&ct=59067&e=173509
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics in its series Working Papers with number 2008012.

as in new window
Length: 48 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ant:wpaper:2008012

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Prinsstraat 13, B-2000 Antwerpen
Web page: http://www.ua.ac.be/tew
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Kerstens, K., 1996. "Technical efficiency measurement and explanation of French urban transit companies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 431-452, November.
  2. Odeck, James, 2006. "Congestion, ownership, region of operation, and scale: Their impact on bus operator performance in Norway," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 52-69, March.
  3. Simar, L. & Wilson, P.W., 1999. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: the State of the Art," Papers 9904, Catholique de Louvain - Institut de statistique.
  4. Gijbels, Irène & Mammen, Enno & Park, Byeong U. & Simar, Léopold, 1998. "On estimation of monotone and concave frontier functions," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 1998,9, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
  5. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
  6. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2002. "Stochastic Frontiers and Asymmetric Information Models," Post-Print hal-00622849, HAL.
  7. Torben Holvad & Jens Hougaard & Dorte Kronborg & Hans Kvist, 2004. "Measuring inefficiency in the Norwegian bus industry using multi-directional efficiency analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 349-369, August.
  8. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2002. "Stochastic Frontiers and Asymmetric Information Models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 145-159, September.
  9. Dag Dalen & Andres Gómez-Lobo, 2003. "Yardsticks on the road: Regulatory contracts and cost efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 371-386, November.
  10. K. A. Boame & K. Obeng, 2004. "Sources of productivity change: a Malmquist total factor productivity approach," Transport Reviews, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 103-116, March.
  11. James Odeck & Abdulrahim Alkadi, 2001. "Evaluating efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry using data envelopment analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 211-232, August.
  12. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2002. "Incentive Regulatory Policies: The Case of Public Transit Systems in France," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(4), pages 605-629, Winter.
  13. Jonathan Cowie & Darinka Asenova, 1999. "Organisation form, scale effects and efficiency in the British bus industry," Transportation, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 231-248, August.
  14. Seitz, Wesley D, 1971. "Productive Efficiency in the Steam-Electric Generating Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 878-86, July-Aug..
  15. Small, Kenneth A. & Gomez-Ibanez, Jose A., 1999. "Urban transportation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 1937-1999 Elsevier.
  16. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Lovell, C A Knox, 1983. " The Structure of Technical Efficiency," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(2), pages 181-90.
  17. Cherchye, L. & Post, G.T., 2001. "Nonparametric Efficiency Estimation in Stochastic Environments (II)," Research Paper ERS-2001-26-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus Uni.
  18. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2002. "Non-parametric tests of returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 115-132, May.
  19. Martijn Brons & Peter Nijkamp & Eric Pels & Piet Rietveld, 2005. "Efficiency of urban public transit: A meta analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 1-21, January.
  20. Chu, Xuehao & Fielding, Gordon J. & Lamar, Bruce W., 1992. "Measuring transit performance using data envelopment analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 223-230, May.
  21. De Borger B. & Kerstens K. & Costa A., 2000. "Public transport performance: what do we learn from frontier studies?," Working Papers 2000019, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics.
  22. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
  23. Philippe Gagnepain & Marc Ivaldi, 2002. "Incentive Regulatory policies: The Case of Public Transit Systems in France," Post-Print hal-00622846, HAL.
  24. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-32.
  25. William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2007. "Ownership, Contractual Practices and Technical Efficiency: The Case of Urban Public Transport in France," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00107375, HAL.
  26. Boame, Attah K., 2004. "The technical efficiency of Canadian urban transit systems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 401-416, September.
  27. Laurens Cherchye & Thierry Post, 2003. "Methodological Advances in DEA: A survey and an application for the Dutch electricity sector," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 57(4), pages 410-438.
  28. Sickles, Robin C., 2005. "Panel estimators and the identification of firm-specific efficiency levels in parametric, semiparametric and nonparametric settings," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 305-334, June.
  29. Gagnepain, P. & Ivaldi, M., 1998. "Stochastic Frontiers and Asymmetric Information Models," Papers 98.503, Toulouse - GREMAQ.
  30. Kneip, Alois & Park, Byeong U. & Simar, L opold, 1998. "A Note On The Convergence Of Nonparametric Dea Estimators For Production Efficiency Scores," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(06), pages 783-793, December.
  31. Nolan, J. F. & Ritchie, P. C. & Rowcroft, J. E., 2002. "Identifying and measuring public policy goals: ISTEA and the US bus transit industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 291-304, July.
  32. William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2007. "Ownership, Contractual Practices and Technical Efficiency: The Case of Urban Public Transport in France," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, London School of Economics and University of Bath, vol. 41(2), pages 257-282, May.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Briec, Walter & Kerstens, Kristiaan & Van de Woestyne, Ignace, 2011. "Nonparametric cost and revenue functions under constant economies of scale: A simplification for the single output or input case," Working Papers 2011/12, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
  2. Curi, Claudia & Gitto, Simone & Mancuso, Paolo, 2011. "New evidence on the efficiency of Italian airports: A bootstrapped DEA analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 84-93, June.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ant:wpaper:2008012

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Joeri Nys).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.